New York Teacher Under Fire For Slavery Lesson With Cotton, Handcuffs

The Rochester teacher is accused of making Black students pick seeds out of cotton and handcuffing them during a seventh-grade class.

Rochester, New York, school officials are investigating allegations that a White teacher told his class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton and put on handcuffs during lessons on slavery in a seventh-grade social studies class.

“It made me feel bad to be a Black person,” student Jahmiere O’Neal told news outlets.

The teacher has been put on leave while the school system investigates the allegations. They came to light after an appalled parent posted on Facebook that her daughter was confronted with the cotton-picking lesson Tuesday.